


My Starting Team

by Chemarta



Series: Tower of God Week 2020 [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, 신의 탑 | Tower of God
Genre: Bam's gunna catch 'em all, Fluff, Gen, Magikarp Best boi, Magikarp uses Splash, Pokemon Crossover, slight angst, togweek2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:20:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24391213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chemarta/pseuds/Chemarta
Summary: The water is cold and unforgiving. He's drowning, alone. But something had other plans.Where Bam is rescued by an unexpected friend.
Series: Tower of God Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1760023
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40





	My Starting Team

Bam struggles to swim, but the currents were strong. His body ached from being smashed against the rocks, and his vision was blurring.

_I’m so tired. Rachel, I just wanted to see you happy. You said you’d be happy if you could just see Mew. So why…?_

Bam felt his eyes close and his body go limp. A large wave went over him, and he was under. The moonlight passed through the dark waters like silvery strands. The bright colors of the water Pokémon looked muted, but still so beautiful.

_Ah, I’m dying. I’m going to die alone. Like I’ve always been. I thought Rachel would have been the key to ease this aching loneliness…_

As he felt his eyes start to close a shadow loomed over him. He couldn’t make out the shape well, but he felt it scoop him up and floated him up.

The next thing he knows, he is coughing up water on the shore. The cold air is uncomfortable, but he is alive. He hears a splash and turns to the source. In the water is the mute orange scales of a Magikarp. It looks at him with its big googly eyes and splashes its tail.

“Y-you s-s-aved me?” Bam chatters.

The Magikarp splashes enthusiastically. Happy that it saved the young boy in time.

Bam smiles and pats its head. “T-th-thank y-you.”

The Magikarp looks concerned when it felt the boy’s hand on its head. It was much too cold, much too pale. It needed to do something or the boy will be in danger. It dives under and chatters with the school of Feebas coming over. It brightens up at the news and surfaces to the boy again.

The boy is still there, huddled in a tight ball and convulsing. The Magikarp splashes with worry and dives down again. There wasn’t much time. It swims as fast as it can to the coast guard patrol boat the Feebas came across.

It splashes wildly to get the people’s attention, but it takes a while. The humans are quite stupid sometimes, but they finally got the hint to follow the Magikarp. When they reach the boy, they shout in distress and immediately move to save the child. They bundle him up and load him up to the boat.

It’s tough, but the Magikarp manages to stay with the boat until it hit the shore. When they load the boy off, the Magikarp looks at him with concern and swims agitatedly. The officer in the boat seemed to understand and pats its head.

“Don’t worry we’ll take good care of the kid. When he’s healthy again. We’ll take him back here and you can see him.” She says soothingly. Her Growlith gives a consoling whine and licks it. The Magikarp is sad, but it stays in the area for when the boy comes back.

It didn’t know how long it stayed in the area. But every few minutes it would surface and scan the horizon for the boy. The office came by once to tell it that the boy would be fine, but needed to stay for ‘observation’.

Finally, it heard him. His voice is stronger now than before, but it’s his voice. The Magikarp surfaces to the smiling face of the boy it saved.

Even after the ordeal, the boy still waded into the water for it. The Magikarp feels touched, and swims happily to the boy. Gentle hands stroke his scales and he splashes happily.

“Officer Jenny said you saved me.” He whispers in awe. “I don’t know how I will ever repay you for that.”

Silly boy, he doesn’t owe it anything. The Magikarp is just happy that the child is safe. But this feels good. Time and time again, it felt the pain of people looking disdainfully at it. Of seeing it only as a means to get a _Gyarados_. Most of the time, they just toss it overboard not willing to go through the hassle of leveling up a Magikarp.

The Magikarp huddles close to the boy. Just this once though, for this one moment it felt good to be treated so kindly.

“I know people probably were really mean to you huh?” Bam says. “Rachel always said you were the worst kind of Pokémon to get. Only good for getting a Gyarados and nothing else.” He buries his face in the Magikarps scales and lets a few tears out.

“Well, she’s wrong. They’re wrong. I don’t care what anyone else thinks. I think you’re the greatest Pokémon.” Bam says resolutely.

The Magikarp is stunned. It looks at the boy’s sincere gentle face and feels his soft hands stroke the battered scales.

 _Ah is this what it feels like to be loved and cared for?_ It thinks.

Then the boy reaches out behind him. “I don’t know if you would ever want to, but…do you want to be on my team? You’ll be my first Pokémon.” Bam holds out the Pokeball to the Magikarp, patiently waiting for its decision.

 _Yes. Yes I would._ The Magikarp splashes excitedly and bumps it’s head to the pokeball. A red light envelopes it and it feels good. It feels safe to be wanted. To be part of a team.

Bam smiles down at the pokeball and clutches it close to his chest.

“Ah looks like you caught it.” Officer Jenny says as he walks back up to shore.

Bam nods. “Yeah, I’m glad it chose me.”

Officer Jenny smiles and ruffles his head. “Well looks like you got a good head start. C’mon I’ll give you a ride to the professor’s lab. You’ll need all the help you can get. Now that you’re going after your old friend.”

Bam nods gravely. “I know. I want to know why she did it, and I need to make sure she doesn’t harm the Mew or any other Pokémon.”

“We’ll keep our eyes peeled too, and we’ve also notified the Champion and Elite Four.” Officer Jenny says. “If what you’re saying is true, Team Rocket’s getting ready for something _big_.”

“Thank you, Officer Jenny.” Bam looks down at the pokeball and smiles. “I know it probably doesn’t look like much, but it feels good to finally have someone on my team.”

She laughs and looks fondly at the boy. “Well I think you’ll make a fine team, Bam. I get the feeling you’ll be going places.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I have a soft spot for Magikarps, I think they just look too cute.


End file.
